Blackmail. Treasure maps. Fool’s gold. Missing persons. Fire. Family. Alchemy.

This is the fifth installment of the Accidental Alchemist series about a 300+ year old alchemist living in Portland with her 150-year-old living gargoyle best friend. And as I’ve raved before, I’ll rave again: This series is awesome!

After listening to the novella that bridged the gap between books 4 & 5, I thought I’d take some time to listen to other books before diving right into this one. Nope. After the novella, I wasn’t ready to leave this particular world. After a few failed attempts at listening to something else, I gave up and returned to Pandian’s alchemical adventures. Unfortunately, I discovered quite quickly that I didn’t remember the fourth book in the series at all. I don’t know where my brain was when I listened to it, but the only reason I even know that I read it is because I reviewed it! Unfortunately, due to trying to avoid series spoilers, my review says absolutely nothing about the book itself! The good news is that it didn’t take me long to orient myself to the current narrative, even if I didn’t remember how exactly we’d gotten to this place.

I quite enjoyed the book. It felt a bit deeper than previous volumes, working on a more thematic level, particularly with regards to fire, transformation, and found-family. It also incorporated one of my favorite childhood memories – The Goonies! – which was delightful. (Side note: I’ll always be sad that on our 2018 Pacific coast cruise, our day at Astoria, Oregon, kept us stuck on the boat because of heavy rain, so I didn’t get to see the town where the Goonies was filmed – or where a big chunk of this book took place!) The mystery of the book, as always, was impossible for me to unravel ahead of time. And like the last book – according to my review, anyway – it also had less focus on recipes throughout, which I personally prefer.

Once again, a fun read, narrated by the awesome Julia Motyka. Highly recommended!